A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Congratulations to Jadaliyya and co-founder Bassam Haddad on making the conspiracy theory hall of
fame: Quoting the Turkish newspaper Radikal about a pro-government paper in Turkey:

Under today’s headline of choice, “The Devil’s Triangle,” [pro-government] Yeni Şafak newspaper accused Jadaliyya, an internet-based news feed published in English and Arabic, of conspiring to alter the Gezi Park demonstrations into one that would topple the Turkish government by
“transforming them [the demonstrations] into a Turkish Spring everything being under the sponsorship of George Soros and Georgetown University ..."

As a Georgetown product it makes me proud to know the
Jesuit plot is still alive and well and still trying to overthrow Turkey. [ For the humorless among my readers, I'm joking.] More:

"The
dirty alliance, forged on the Beirut-Istanbul-Washington line, with
foreign media, finance, and academic circles in participation, is
becoming more de-classified and decoded every day. Jadaliyya, which has
been fanatically feeding the world news about what was happening first
and foremost in Istanbul, but also in other parts of Turkey, in the
institutional media wing of the Arab Studies Institute of Georgetown
University [sic]. The financier behind Jadaliyya, which claims to be a
not-for-profit site, is, however, none other than the famous speculator
and founder of the Open Society Institute, George Soros—the same name
behind the ‘Orange Revolutions’ that started in Ukraine in 2004, and
continued in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. Published as a monthly [sic], and
carrying a 1.5 million sales in numbers, the internet site of the
journal is supported by a great number of Middle Eastern and Western
academics and activists. Even in its very first news reports on the
demonstrations, Jadaliyya not only dubbed them as ‘Turkish Revolution’
and ‘Turkish Spring,’ but also generously featured the ugliest
adjectives describing Erdoğan, ones that even the demonstrators against
him did not dare to mouth."

"Michael Collins Dunn is the editor of The Middle East Journal. He also blogs. His latest posting summarizes a lot of material on the Iranian election and offers some sensible interpretation. If you are really interested in the Middle East, you should check him out regularly."— Gary Sick, Gary's Choices

"Since we’re not covering the Tunisian elections particularly well, and neither does Tunisian media, I’ll just point you over here. It’s a great post by MEI editor Michael Collins Dunn, who . . . clearly knows the country pretty well."— alle, Maghreb Politics Review

"I’ve followed Michael Collins Dunn over at the Middle East Institute’s blog since its beginning in January this year. Overall, it is one of the best blogs on Middle Eastern affairs. It is a selection of educated and manifestly knowledgeable ruminations of various aspects of Middle Eastern politics and international relations in the broadest sense."— davidroberts at The Gulf Blog

"Michael Collins Dunn, editor of the prestigious Middle East Journal, wrote an interesting 'Backgrounder' on the Berriane violence at his Middle East Institute Editor’s Blog. It is a strong piece, but imperfect (as all things are) . . ."— kal, The Moor Next DoorThis great video of Nasser posted on Michael Collins Dunn’s blog (which is one of my favorites incidentally) ...— Qifa Nabki